Tag: pie

Due to Tele falling ill this week, I was in charge of the Thanksgiving meal. I had no choice but to step up and accomplish the task. So, I did. I made the whole meal.

I forgot to take pre-eating pictures of the Thanksgiving table, but I did get you the after pics.

The left side of the table in clockwise order: mashed potatoes, Praline Yams, Whole Cranberry Sauce, Cranberry Relish, StoveTop Cornbread Stuffing, and HoneyBaked Ham.

The right side of the table starting from the back of the table and moving forward: Dutch Apple Pie with Never-Fail Pie Crust, Sweet Corn Muffins, Cranberry Salad, CornBread, Honey Maid Cinnamon Sticks and Bees for the fluff, Fluff with fresh strawberries, PineCone Spread with Original Triscuits.

Not pictured but included in the food lineup of the evening: Corn on the cob roasted under the broiler and Chatham Village Cranberry Herb Stuffing.

The only thing I didn't get to make was my grandma's Pumpkin Cookies. But the apple pie was so yummy it was okay that the cookies were missing.

All of us here at EU just want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your kitchen is full of wonderful smells right about now. Mine smells of a made from scratch Apple Pie that I just pulled from the oven.

Rather than a turkey we have opted for a HoneyBaked Ham. That has left the oven free for me to do all sorts of baking today. Next on the agenda is cornbread. I have yet to decide if I am going to make sweet corn muffins or basic corn bread. I'll have to get that figured out shortly. Also, I am going to try to squeeze in a batch of my grandma's Pumpkin Cookies.

Happy Baking!

Sorry, I didn't get this up sooner. Better late than never though!

Well, for the pie crust I went with my trusted Pampered Chef recipe. Simply known as Perfect Pie Crust. Really any pie crust recipe would do for a chicken pot pie as long as it is not on the sweet side.

This was by far one of the yummiest dishes at Greek night. I am glad that I made it and plan on making it again in the future. I don't really know when the Greek eat this dish, but being a slightly sweet custard pie it makes either a great dessert or a wonderful addition to a breakfast/brunch buffet.

Does it not make you lust for pie!?

I chose to use Cat Cora's Galaktoboureko recipe for this dish. Her directions were very clear and easy to understand. But I did have to make a few changes. I don't know what kind of baking dish she was specifically referring to, so I chose to use my Pampered Chef Deep Dish Baker. It worked perfectly.

Also, I am not sure where to acquire "thick" phyllo dough. None of the stores I went to had it. So, I just used regular thin sheets of phyllo dough.

I brushed one sheet w/butter and then added another sheet on top and buttered it. I continued this process until the stack was 8 sheets thick. I then laid this over half of the round baking dish, letting it drape over the sides. I repeated this process to cover the other half of the dish. Then for the top I prepared 6 more sheets of phyllo dough in the same manner.

I chose not to cut the top dough to fit the size of the dish as Cat Cora suggested, I just rolled up the little bit of extra dough when I rolled up the sides. The original recipe suggests scoring the top of the phyllo with diagonal cuts, but I must admit that while using the thin phyllo sheets this was almost impossible. So I just gave it some strategically placed small pokes with a sharp knife all around the top.

The pie was very easy to cut once it was cooked. Also, it will seem as if there is not enough room for the pie to "drink up" all of the lemon syrup. Just be patient. Give it as much as it can hold and just wait a minute or two, then start pouring more in slowly. It will eventually take it all. This part really adds a lot of flavor so you want to make sure you get all of the syrup in there.

I wouldn't worry too much about clarifying the butter, it really doesn't make that big of a difference in this case. Editor's Note: Liar. Just because you can't tell...

Just melt the butter and allow it to cool before using a spoon to skim off the fat that has crusted on top. That is really all that is necessary.

Now, to find some semolina. Semolina is a flour used to make pasta. It is sold in clear plastic bags and made by Bob's Red Mill. I was not able to locate it at any of the regular grocery stores in town (well at least not on any of their websites). Truth be told, I avoid the large grocery stores whenever possible. When I ran in to my trusted Sunflower Market they had it available right next to all the other great products by Bob's Red Mill. If you are looking for it in the store I would look for it where ever your store stocks the specialty grains. Editor's Note: What the heck, do they pay you?

This is a moon alien.

Really, once you have gathered all the ingredients to this dish together it is a very simple dish to prepare. It also tastes wonderful cold, so it is a recipe that you can make ahead of time, allow to cool and then refrigerate until needed. I love when I can prepare dishes ahead of time... less stress on party day that way!

So yet again the EU crew chose a food category that I really have no experience with. Baklava and eating at the Mad Greek in Baker, CA once is the extent of my Greek food influence. So, I immediately began searching out desserts... this is my specialty, after all. I had about five different ones that I was tempted to try, but I narrowed it down to three. I chose two cookies and one milk pie. Let's start with the first cookie that I tackled: on Friday, with 4 kids running around, I began the process of making powdered sugar dome cookies, otherwise known as Kourabiethes.

These cookies were super easy to make. A little expensive, if you don't have a cognac drinker in the house as a bottle of Hennessy is $24 and you only need 1 1/2 tablespoons. As luck has it, Tele likes to drink a little Hennessy on occasion, so it all worked out. Now, it seems to me that most Greek recipes were designed to feed an entire army, so I had to halve this recipe. If I knew how to split an egg in half I would have sized it down further, but since I don't have a laser egg yolk/white splitter, I stuck to just half the recipe, which still produced 30 large Kourabiethes.

Apart from sizing the recipe down I did not make any other changes to the recipe except omitting the rose water as it was optional anyhow.

Now a photo journey of the process of making Kourabiethes.

Creamed butter and sugar.

1 1/2 tablespoons Hennessy.

Here is the Hennessy after the baking powder was added.

I had sliced almonds in the fridge so I just chopped them up and roasted them in the oven on 350 degrees until they just started to darken in color.

The almonds have been added into the creamed butter and sugar along with the cognac/baking powder mixture, eggs and vanilla.

The dough after about 1/2 of the flour has been mixed in and another bit has been added.

One more addition of flour to go.

The dough is now ready to be formed into little domes.

Start by scooping out a small mound of dough, such as this.

Then begin pressing the dough together into a ball.

Now use your palm to form the top into a dome shape and flatten the bottom of the cookie.

I found that for me the base of the cookie need to be about the size of the middle of my palm.

And that 2 of my fingers was about 3/4 of an inch tall so I used my fingers as a guide to get the proper dome height.

The cookies waiting to go into the oven.

Now that the cookies have come out of the oven, it is time to start coating them in powdered sugar. Up till this point the kids have only helped me out by being my photographer (and they did a great job of that, if I do say so myself), but now they are ready to get busy.

LittleRoq is the first one to jump on the chair and start the sugar coating process (this was of course after he thoroughly washed his hands. I am quite a stickler about this important kitchen rule. CLEAN HANDS always!).

Now it was time for JoieGirl to get in on the action. She ended up putting the first coating of powdered sugar on almost all the cookies. Such great cooking assistants!

And finally we have all 30 cookies coated in powdered sugar twice and put away in a container waiting for Greek Night.

Chicken Pot Pie.

Think about that steam curling up from the crust.

Chicken Freaking Pot Pie.

The Pennsylvania Dutch enslaved an entire nation with this rustic dish, which is one of the few meat pies enjoyed this side of the Atlantic (I KNOW YOU'RE THERE, NATCHITOCHES MEAT PIE. I will find the filthy, forbidden love that is deep fried meat pie some day).

The PD's (like they call them back in the hood) also brought us pretzels, apple butter, and funnel cakes, because they are sheer butter-encrusted evil. Their plan is to fatten all of humanity and use their disgusting man-fat to grease the largest slip-n-slide in history. But, you're not cleared for that information.

Her Tartness did the crust for this one, so I'll let her add that one.

1. I cut up two chicken breasts (p.s. - they liked it) and half a white onion (small cubes for the chicken, finely chopped for the onion). Utterly confused by what I was going to do to make these chunks into some sort of pie, I sweated the onion in a stick of butter.

WHAT? Butter comes by the stick. It's how I measure. We are a very skinny family. Bite me.

1. The chicken went in after the onion was clear, along with some soy sauce, pepper, paprika, finely chopped celery (2 sticks) and garlic powder.

2. Double barrel action after the chicken was thoroughly cooked as I unceremoniously plopped one can of cream of chicken and one can of cream of mushroom into the skillet. It sat there, jellied, like some disgusting panna cotta. I stirred it all in anyways.

3. Once it was less... upright, I threw in some mixed vegetables (frozen). What goes with mushroom and chicken? The T herbs! In went some fresh thyme (man, what I would have given for a marijuana smoker to break down those two twigs) and dried tarragon. When things thinned out a bit too much I added a tablespoon of cornstarch and stirred it in.

4. Tasting... what do I need? More soy sauce. A dab of worcestershire. Meanwhile, Tart-on was making some kind of dough as I simmered everything on low.

Magically, all those ingredients with the crust fit perfectly in a circular 9-inch baker. Turned oven to 400. Docked the crust with a fork and brushed it with one beaten egg. Put into the oven. WAITED A HORRIBLY LONG FORTY FIVE MINUTES.

1. Littleroq asked for chicken pot pie for BREAKFAST the next day. Take that, Marie Callender. I have evaded your charms.

Note: Why do I add soy sauce to so many things? Because the MSG in soy sauce makes everything taste like store-bought.

I'm looking for the worst recipes on the internet for a running thread on EdibleUnknown. Here's a few of the ones I found so far: * California jail burrito spread. Apparently, this is a special treat for the inmates. Ick.

• I am speechless. Look at this. Yes, I'd like to teach my kids to eat out of the litter box. I can't imagine how this could be fun.

• Some of the comments for this recipe on Food Network's site are too good to pass up.

• Food Network has the best complaints ever. I swear.

• Paula Deen's heart is going to explode one of these days.

• A satire on how not to write a recipe.

• This can't be real.

• It takes a lot of Google page views to find the really good failures at foodtv.

• This looks like something James Lileks might own.

• What in tarnation might this be?

• Mmm, fish just oozing with goodness.

• Yes, I know some people like animelles. Via Look At This.

• Some commenters can be so ungrateful.

• Even the name sounds good.

• The recipe might be just fine, but the first commenter acts as if though the very existence of the recipe ruined CHRISTMAS.

• Trying to imagine what this tastes like is like the whole Mary's Room thought experiment- very difficult. I wonder if Sandra Lee has a grassroots rating-inflater/dumper society; her recipes seem to polarize the food network bunch.

• WHAT. IS. THIS?

• Read the comment entitled "the best chicken mini pot pies ever!". Poor Sandra.

• Number 3 is throwing up? I thought it was "alone time".